While this is mostly about parking issues, the part that stood out most to me in this is:
A study published in the Journal of Safety Research last year found that children were eight times more likely to die when struck by an SUV than those struck by a passenger car.
Eight times! To me, that’s insane. Even if it were 50% that would be very bad, but this is 700% more!
This article totally ignores the actual biggest cars on the road, the american ones, the mentioned BMW i7 is 539cm long, but my neighbour has a Dodge Ram pick up at 583cm, yes he parks in the local co op, yes he fucks up everything cause nobody can get past, he also takes half an hour to get in the space.
I do not get the pickup truck in the city thing. People think that if a car dealer will sell you a car, it’s everyone else’s obligation to make sure you can drive it absolutely everywhere, at any time.
It doesn’t mention them as it’s about the UK and no one drives those models here as you literally wouldn’t be able to get down lots of roads let alone park anywhere.
And we can’t put bike parking in front of stores because they take up too much space? 😒
If your car is too large to fit in a regular parking space, it shouldn’t be allowed there.
Put big vehicle parking way at the back of the parking lot and prioritize small vehicles, bikes, micromobility, handicap parking, and public transportation services closer to stores and buildings.
Boris is actually a bit of a weird outlier in the Tories. I don’t like him for lots of other reasons, but he did seem to genuinely believe that climate change was an issue and used to ride a bike about London all the time when he was mayor. Shouldn’t have got anywhere near the PMs seat though.
There is a study out there that says controlling for weight, the shape of the vehicle is another significant factor for the likelihood of survivability of being ran over. Cars have a lower bumper and this allows for adults to roll on to the hood, children also have a higher chance of the same (but not much). SUVs, crossovers, and trucks have higher bumpers which gives them bigger blind spots and when hitting an adult, it’s extremely likely, that the victim is seeing the underside of the vehicle.
Taking a step back, vehicles have become heavier at a faster rate and this means that a new car today vs a 2000 car of the same model, going the same speed, the new car will deal much, much more damage due to physics. There’s just more mass.
It’s not even limited to hitting children (because we don’t think of the the children inside or outside of the car), it also affects the roads, parking garage, and bridges that cars use. Heavy vehicles do more damage to the infrastructure than lighter vehicles. EVs are almost always leaving out the fact that they are heavier, and will cause more damage to the road (and children).
In a perfect world, vehicle registration would be based on usage of the road, but that is difficult to come up with a way to enforce that. I think the next best thing would be to have an exponential/progressive registration fee based on weight. If you purchased a heavier vehicle, you are now responsible for contributing even more money to the roads due to your ludicrous destruction of it.
(because we don’t think of the the children inside or outside of the car)
No, children inside cars are thought of, much like anybody else, it’s why we keep having “safer” cars, enforced by regulations, that are actively detrimental to everybody not in a car or an older car due to more weight, more bulkiness, less visibility
I have a modest proposal: If a car is too big for a standard parking spot, it gets marked on the licence plate. It then is not allowed to park on standard parking spots as it’s too big for them. Cities and companies are allowed to create bigger parking spots where such cars are allowed to park.
You jest, but this is exactly what the German panel who’s responsible for our traffic „recommendations“ proposed recently: make the parking spots larger…
Leaving nuclear power was decided on by the conservatives and social democrats in 2011 with an end of life plan until 2023. This decision was already prepared in 2002 btw. And they’re not closed in favor of fossils, but in favor of renewables. Sure, fossils are still in the mix and we can debate if nuclear power is considered sustainable. But the Greens didn’t close nuclear power plants in favor of fossil fuels.
the Greens didn’t close nuclear power plants in favor of fossil fuels.
Well, seeing as they’re still using fossil fuel plants, they kinda did. They can say it was to change to renewables all they want, but if they’re still burning fossils then what’s the point? Shouldn’t their main objective be decarbonisation?
No they’ve always been too small. Even small cars have difficulty getting even one click on the door open when parked in the smallest of UK spaces. Sure, maybe the “standard size” UK space has been more or less sufficient, but the fact is the standard isn’t enforced very well and smaller spaces are very common.
Length is another matter, and there are ways to park to address that. Although I’ve seen plenty who drive bigger vehicles completely fail at this, leaving their vehicle sticking out obtrusively. But the UK is notorious for having spaces that are too narrow, all in an effort to cram one more in and get more parking revenue.
No, I’m just referring to the inability to open a door even to the first point in many car parks across the UK. Not all, maybe not even most, but a significant number. I reckon it’s gotten better over the years, I don’t think newer car parks are a problem.
I don’t drive, but growing up my mum always drove estate cars as we had dogs so needed the boot for them. Never had an issue parking or getting in or out of the car in any of them.
The yanks can do what they like, but it’s the lazy car companies cutting costs by not designing models for different territories anymore. They just make the one frame and change the innards for different countries.
And those children dying are just too weak.
They should either toughen up, or at least wear inflatable airbag-suits if they're going to use public spaces.
Though it is also pretty shocking that their careless parents let them walk anywhere.
/s
You joke, but my son was hit by a truck while crossing the street on the way home from the train.
The truck hit him, he landed, stood up, brushed himself off, and was going to continue home except people stopped him and made him go to the hospital.
After >10 years of karate classes, he knew how to fall without injuring himself.
He also said he’d been hit harder while sparring.
Of course, there was some adrenaline involved, and he did have some minor injuries. Nothing that needed treatment. Then he had literal years of fighting with insurance companies not paying the associated medical bills for the trip to the ER.
Edit: he was also in high school on the verge of being “an adult”, so he probably isn’t really who they’re talking about.
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